Audiobro La Scoring Strings Keygenguru
Audiobro La Scoring Strings Keygenguru Search. 3/12/2018 0 Comments Audiobro established itself as a major player in the string library market with the quality of LASS version 1. But with version 2 and now 2.5 it's added layers of control which allow the user to put together sophisticated arrangements more easily.
- Software >Sound Library
Created in collaboration with the makers of LA Scoring Strings, NI’s new Symphony Series instrument puts a 60-piece string ensemble at your disposal.
Audiobro Lass
The second instalment of Native Instruments’ Symphonic Series of orchestral instruments, String Ensemble, follows hot on the heels of the impressive Brass Collection. While the standard practice is to use the same creative team, orchestra and recording venue across such a series, this is not the case with these two libraries. Brass Collection was recorded at St Paul’s church in San Francisco by sample maestros Soundiron, whereas String Ensemble (henceforth referred to as SE) comes from the hallowed halls of Audiobro. Why hallowed? Because Audiobro are the very same company responsible for LA Scoring Strings (LASS), considered by many to be one of the finest sampled string libraries in the business.
So, is SE a redux of LASS for the masses? Well, no — SE is crafted from new recordings done in Budapest, whereas LASS was recorded on an LA scoring stage. Does it matter that the strings and brass are playing in venues 6100 miles apart? Considering that a good many people mix and match orchestral libraries from disparate sources, then probably not — as long as it sounds good. And given SE’s provenance, expectations will be unsurprisingly high.
Rosins To Be Cheerful
Maintaining consistency across the series, SE employs the same stately black and gold GUI as the Brass libraries, and barring some conceptual differences, the same operational paradigms. Content is arranged quite simply into five presets: one each for violins, violas, cellos and basses, plus a full ensemble preset that presents the whole string orchestra laid out across the keyboard range. The latter is useful for sketching ideas or laying down basic pads, and provides a quick and easy way to create tutti stabs, runs and more. Each section preset contains everything needed to access articulations, control legato, portamento and repetitions, select section size and, perhaps most interestingly, a system for managing divisi parts, more on which later.
The main performance page, with the full complement of 30 violin players loaded. The legato articulation is selected, Auto Divisi and legato portamento/transitions are active.The default method of changing articulations is via keyswitches. However there’s also the option to use velocity switching or a MIDI controller instead. The latter method has the advantage of chasing MIDI, and is best for producing clean notation scores without those unwanted ‘rogue’ keyswitch notes. Articulation mapping is fully customisable, so you can load only the articulations you need, saving RAM and reducing subsequent loading times.
The mixer provides control of on/off status, and volume and panning of the stereo pre-mix and close, mid and far microphones. Global effects are three-band parametric EQ, compression and convolution reverb. The reverb boasts 104 impulses, most of which were specially created for SE by Audiobro, including four ‘cinematic’ ambiences. A handy Transfer Settings feature allows easy copying of the Mixer settings across all sections — as long as they reside in the same Kontakt instance.
All GUI knobs, sliders and switchable functions on the Performance and Mixer pages can be assigned to MIDI controllers, making it easy to adjust parameters such as attack time, portamento speed or EQ on the fly. The process of setting up of all these functions is identical to the Brass Collection library, the details of which are covered in the Brass Collection review in the March 2016 edition of SOS.
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Divide & Conquer
The inclusion of divisi sections in SE is a luxury usually reserved for much larger libraries. It solves the issue of sample build-up typical in standard libraries where the number of players is multiplied by the number of notes played. Whereas other libraries require you to consider the need for divisi parts in advance and load separate divisi sections, SE sidesteps that forward planning with its Auto Divisi feature. Auto Divisi monitors your playing and distributes divisi parts appropriately between the number of players in a section, thereby keeping the section size constant. This is best illustrated by the violins. The default setup on loading is the full complement of first and second violins, a total of 30 players arranged into four layers: Violins I A and B sections, with eight players each, and Violins II A and B sections, with seven players each. They will all play a single note in unison. When two notes are played, they are distributed between Violins I A and B (16 players) and Violins II A and B (14 players). Three notes divide as 16/7/7, four notes as 8/8/7/7. You can add more notes, but as the four divisi sections are all busy, SE will simply add more players. While it’s considerate of SE not to restrict the maximum polyphony, sticking to a maximum of four-part divisi for the violins, and two-part for the violas (6/6), cellos (5/5) and basses (4/4), keeps things within the bounds of realism.
Furthermore, the legato and portamento transitions work polyphonically and are preserved between chords or movements within a chord, as long as adjacent notes fall within 40ms of each other. Outside that window they are treated as new, non-transitioned notes. Auto Divisi also works very cleverly with the sustain pedal. Hold down the pedal and keep it held down, play a note or chord, let go of the keys and move to the next chord — even change the number of notes — and Auto Divisi reassigns the voices automatically, at the same time guaranteeing all notes’ legato (or portamento) transitions are preserved.
The articulation assignment edit page, showing all available articulations for the violins.The Setup tab provides the means to determine the section sizes. Sometimes you want the more intimate sound of fewer players. Alternatively, you might wish to control the behaviour and dynamics of first and second (or the divisi A and B) section players individually. The Section Setups box lists the options available to each section and, again, the violins offer the greatest number of options, having more players at their disposal. So to have individual control over Violins I and II, load the violins preset twice, set one up to play only Violins I and the other to play Violins II. You can even load just the A or B divisi sections if you want precise control over every line. This is also great for creating a particularly intimate, transparent-sounding string section with a lower player count. When using just the A or B divisi sections, playing polyphonically simply adds more players, so it’s best to treat these as strictly monophonic parts. Turning off Auto Divisi makes sure they stay that way.
Articulations
Up to 10 articulations are provided for each section (see the ‘Articulations’ box to find out which apply to each section). The presets load with articulations pre-assigned to the eight keyswitch positions, but these can be customised to suit your purpose. Legato sustains are the main feature, with crossfading dynamic layers controlled by the mod wheel. Each layer has progressively increasing amounts of vibrato, giving a wide range of expressivity from gentle, silvery calm to satisfying ‘El Cid’ intensity, especially in the violins. If you prefer to control the amount of vibrato yourself, the Legato Vib Ctrl articulation provides a vibrato amount knob to which any MIDI CC can be assigned. Both of these articulations feature a portamento speed knob. The choice of legato or portamento transitions is controlled by velocity, with a user-adjustable changeover point.
Sordino Sus Vib brings the sweeter sound of muted strings. The absence of legato here requires careful playing or programming to avoid notes sounding disconnected, or ‘dropped’ players caused by excessive overlapping of notes when Auto Divisi is on. The same caveats apply to the Tremolo articulation, which sounds particularly good on cellos and basses, with laudably clear pitch definition on the latter. Trills (violins and violas only) come with four options: whole tone, half tone, major and minor. Major and minor trills conform to the key signature specified in the drop-down menu, making sure that the correct whole or half tone trill interval is played for any given note in that key. Unfortunately the choice of key signature can only be set via the GUI, so if you’re trilling in multiple keys, or need to be specific about melodic or harmonic minor scales, it’s better to assign the trill articulation to two different keyswitches — one set to whole, the other set to half, and switch between them as necessary.
The violins’ setup page, where the section size is selected. Having both first and second sections as well as divisi sections for each of these, the violins have the most sizing options.The Harmonics are delightfully spooky, laden with breathy rosin. These have an additional release time control, extending the normal release time to enable long, dreamy crossfades. The short articulations (staccato, spiccato and pizzicato) all provide round-robin samples (4x, 4x and 2x respectively). The staccato and spiccato 4x round robins can optionally cycle continuously or randomly. For all three short articulations, a Slam amount knob applies extra compression and gain compensation for a fatter, more in-your-face sound.
The Repetition feature (shorts only) is a convenient tool for executing parts that ‘chug’ along in strict tempo-sync’ed time, with three time-base options: 1/8th, 1/8th triplet, or 1/16th. There’s also a choice of three preset accent patterns or no accents — the latter allowing you to ‘ride’ your own accents on the mod wheel. The Repetition tool works effectively enough for the staccato and spiccato shorts, but is perhaps less successful on (or likely to be scored for) the pizzicatos. I do miss not having a marcato articulation for the violins, violas and cellos. However, a similar effect can be achieved by layering staccatos and legato sustains onto the same keyswitch.
Staccato, spiccato and pizzicato shorts all feature round robins and a tempo-sync’ed Repetition tool.Tempo-sync’ed octave runs always prove useful, and these come in major and minor variations — selectable, thankfully, by MIDI. At the time of writing there is an issue with their tempo-sync’ed playback speed; they run just a tad too fast, finishing just before the target beat. NI are currently looking into the matter, and will hopefully have corrected it by the time you read this review. The Bass section has two additional articulations not shared by the other sections — marcato and the aggressively snappy Bartok pizzicato. That’s a shame, as they would be welcome additions across the board.
Conclusion
There’s no denying the sumptuousness of sound produced by SE. It has a full, strident quality well suited to dramatic orchestral writing, yet it can equally be delicate and emotive. The Auto Divisi is especially well thought out and extremely welcome, as is the inclusion of both legato and portamento transitions. The ability to reduce the number of players is also a bonus, extending the applications of SE beyond the full-blown Hollywood approach.
While SE may not provide every articulation you could wish for, all the important and most useful ones are there — certainly enough to create a passable representation of a string score. No library is perfect. The legato transitions of the violins when playing ff could be smoother, and there are occasional notes that are duller or quieter than their neighbours (notably in the basses), but in that regard I’ve yet to hear a string library that didn’t suffer similarly to some extent.
Pricing may be an issue for some. SE is relatively expensive as a one-off purchase, although a crossgrade deal for owners of Komplete packages 2 to 10 offers a reduction of almost 50 percent. Audiobro’s experience and know-how have produced a classy string ensemble library, and at the crossgrade price, Native Instruments’ String Ensemble is definitely one for serious consideration.
Alternatives
You needn’t spend a fortune on huge, multi-volume collections to get great results. There are some standout examples of relatively affordable string libraries with features and sound quality that belie their price tags. Cinematic Strings 2 delivers an exceptionally lush sound, with a fiendishly clever way of creating authentic-sounding fast runs, short articulations with adjustable lengths, and a clear, easy to use GUI. Cinesamples’ Cinestrings Core also features polyphonic legato transitions, and has an excellent sibling expansion library Cinestrings Runs. Audiobro’s own flagship library LA Scoring Strings also has an affordable version, LASS Lite. None of these examples, however, have divisi or scaleable section sizes, which currently remain unique to String Ensemble in this price range.
Articulations
VIOLINS VIOLAS CELLOS BASSES ENSEMBLE*
Legato Sustains Legato Sustains Legato Sustains Legato Sustains Sustains
Legato Vib Ctrl Legato Vib Ctrl Legato Vib Ctrl Sordino Sordino
Sordino Sordino Sordino Tremolo Tremolo
Tremolo Tremolo Tremolo Harmonics Staccato
Trills Trills Harmonics Spiccato Spiccato Quantum fx rem 100 manual.
Harmonics Harmonics Spiccato Staccato Pizzicato
Spiccato Spiccato Staccato Pizzicato Octave runs
Staccato Staccato Pizzicato Bartok pizz
Pizzicato Pizzicato Octave runs Marcato *no legato or
Octave runs Octave runs Auto Divisi
Section Setups
VIOLINS VIOLAS CELLOS BASSES ENSEMBLE
All Violins (30) All Violas (12) All Cellos (10) All Basses (8) Full (60)
Violins I (16) Violas A (6) Cellos A (5) Basses A (4) Full, no Violins B (46)
Violins II (14) Violas B (6) Cellos B (5) Basses B (4) Ensemble Divisi A (23)
Violins I A (8) Ensemble Divisi B (23)
Violins I B (8)
Violins II A (7)
Violins II B (7)
Audiobro La Scoring Strings Torrent
Pros
- Sumptuous sound quality.
- Auto Divisi is very well implemented.
- Smaller section sizes possible.
Cons
- Relatively expensive unless you’re able to take advantage of the Komplete crossgrade pricing.
- Violins, violas and cellos lack marcato and Bartok pizzicato articulations.
- Playback speed issue with tempo-sync’ed octave runs.
Summary
String Ensemble sounds great right out of the box. Its major selling points are without doubt the inclusion of a well-implemented divisi system and the option of fewer players, both usually reserved for more costly libraries. The range of articulations, whilst not comprehensive, is more than adequate to produce dynamic, emotive orchestrations. And not unimportantly, it’s very straightforward to use.
information
£429. Crossgrade from Komplete 2 to 10 £249. Prices include VAT.Native Instruments +44 (0)207 9207500
$499. Crossgrade from Komplete 2 to 10 $299.Native Instruments +1 866 556 6487
- Software >Sound Library
LA Scoring Strings hopes to set itself apart from the competition with clever devices that make it both more realistic and more user‑friendly.
LASS is a deep sample library. Fortunately, a fair amount of information is visible from each instrument's window and is specific to that particular articulation.
'You wrote that?” my wife asked, after hearing the results of my toying around with LASS for about half an hour. 'That sounds really good. Did you really write that?” she added. In a way, that sort of sums up my experience with LASS, but since Sound On Sound doesn't print two‑sentence reviews, I'm going to have to elaborate.
Background
LASS is the brainchild of Andrew Keresztes, an accomplished film composer who was frustrated with the current crop of string libraries and decided to do something about it. While most of us would sit back and wait for technology to catch up with our ever‑increasing demands, Mr Keresztes hired a string orchestra, booked time at an LA film scoring stage, and created a string library that overcomes many of the limitations of other libraries, while implementing several innovative ideas of its own.
LA Scoring Strings, or LASS (thank heaven for acronyms), is installed from six dual‑layer DVDs, takes up about 40 gigabytes of hard drive space, and uses the ubiquitous Native Instruments Kontakt player. Now 40GB of samples is a good chunk of hard-drive real‑estate, but when you take into account that it includes both 16‑ and 24‑bit versions of the library, it's actually a pretty efficient usage of samples.
The manual for LASS is in PDF format, is well written and explains LASS's unique features quite capably. I would have liked a hard copy to peruse away from the computer, or at least a chart with the MIDI controller info and possibly quick how‑to guides. I ended up copying and pasting excerpts from the manual to create my own version of a one‑sheet reference to print out. While this is a minor issue, in view of LASS's price tag I think something more substantial than a PDF is in order.
Divide & Conquer
LASS employs several features that differentiate it from other high‑end string libraries. The first and most noteworthy of these is its true divisi implementation.
Composers working with string libraries have had to compromise their arrangements to some degree due to the fact that divisi sections have, up until now, not been available. But why does it matter? Well, suppose your first violins are divided into two groups, each group playing a different note. If you play two notes on duplicate violin patches, the whole section will play each note, effectively doubling the section size. That is not the composer's intention, but the workarounds are not usually worth the effort. Mixing libraries can yield decent results but may require serious tweaking. Using smaller sections (provided in some libraries) seems like a solution, but not when it is the same two sections. While your notes‑to‑players ratio is intact, it's not the same as two separate groups of players.
LASS overcomes this dilemma by providing separate sub‑sections within each instrument section. For instance, the first violins patches are divided up as follows: 16‑player full section, eight‑player section, two different four‑player sections, and a first-chair section leader. The divided sections are recorded separately in their own physical position, with different players. This array of sub-sections makes it possible to divide your section in a very realistic fashion.
Wait, There's More
Whether you're dividing the sections into sub‑sections, as pictured, or using the full instrument patches, instantiating multiple Auto Rhythm Tools add a tremendous amount of movement and colour to your string arrangements.
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LASS's use of legato is truly outstanding. Typically, legato passages (notes tied together with no space between them) contain varying amounts of subtle portamento and glissandi between the notes. LASS handles this wonderfully, and achieving realistic legato playing in LASS is essentially effortless. If a note is held down while the next note is played, LASS adds either portamento or glissando, depending on the velocity of the second note. Very cool! If the time it takes you to reach your second note is not to your liking, no problem: just use MIDI CC (Continuous Controller) 83 to control speed.
When I first read the manual and saw that there was no keyswitching but instead lots of MIDI CC numbers to tweak, I was worried that I wouldn't have enough knobs on my controller to get the most out of LASS. My fear was allayed when I noticed that it was the same series of controllers being used for the different articulations. The six knobs on my keyboard controller were quite enough.
Another unique element of LASS is the first‑chair solo player in each section. While Andrew Keresztes is quick to point out the distinction between a first‑chair player and a soloist, many users, including myself, have been using it as a solo instrument, with fantastic results. One of the benefits the first‑chair player provides is the ability to amplify and add expression to a section in a realistic way. In my test arrangement of only the smallest sections of each family of strings, the first‑chair player added a subtle yet evocative element to each section. The inclusion of the first‑chair player is both unique and highly practical. It also adds string quartet to LASS's feature list.
So many great film scores get their eeriness from strings playing harmonics, but most libraries overlook harmonics, or include a throwaway patch or two. Each LASS section (and sub-section) contains very usable harmonic patches. The same can be said for its sordino (muted strings) patches, which offer yet another palette of sound.
ART Imitating Life
ART (Auto Rhythm Tool) is another of LASS's secret weapons. When short articulations like spiccato, staccato and pizzicato are loaded, pressing on the sustain pedal initiates ART. While sync'ing to your DAW's tempo, ART plays your notes in rhythm with varying accents. You can choose between eighth‑note, eighth‑note triplets and sixteenth‑note rhythms. There's also a 'Double‑time' option. I believe many users will have the same reaction that I did when playing LASS with ART engaged: 'Wow!' Tight action-movie backgrounds are so easy to create that you almost feel like you're cheating.
There are 10 groups of rhythmic patterns to choose from (actually, the rhythm is the same but the accents are different) but as making your own is pretty effortless, creating them on the fly is a good way to go. Of course, if you create a pattern you'll want to use again or apply to another instrument, you can save it via the drop-down menu.
I believe there are potential LASS owners out there who don't view first-chair players and true divisi as big game-changers. For them, the Auto Rhythm Tool may be reason enough to purchase LASS.
The ART would not yield realistic results unless LASS used a round-robin pool of samples. https://goldroid.netlify.app/download-torrent-romy-and-michele-s-high-school-reunion.html. LASS, however, goes one step further, providing random round-robin sample playback. Instead of triggering samples in the same sequence, LASS has the ability to randomise sample playback, ensuring an even more realistic performance.
LA Scoring Sound
This is probably a good time for me to address the big question and let you know how LASS sounds: exceptional. I was glad to hear that the library has a dry overall sound without much ambience, allowing for more definition in phrasing. The strings themselves sound pristine and smooth, while the shorter articulations possess a slight grit to their attack. I own a few string libraries, but I don't think I'll be using any of them in the foreseeable future. LASS covers everything very well, even as a solo instrument. The other major libraries have some big things in the works, but they would have to really hit it out of the park to touch LASS, which is outstanding and ready now.
I had to adjust how I set up my composing template while using LASS: since it doesn't use keyswitching (you can set up keyswitching easily enough in Kontakt), I needed to load more tracks than I normally would. I used LASS to, quite quickly, write thriller‑sounding movie music. I also used it to write soaring romantic cues with tremendous results.
One of the side effects of LASS's true divisi is that you start to think more like an orchestral composer. I haven't always given much thought to how I would divide a chord in a section, and now it's something I ponder way too much.
Summing Up
The great thing about LASS is that in spite of it doing so many complicated things — and doing them so well and with incredible control — it is very easy to use. If you've read any of my past reviews, you'll know that I can get a little overwhelmed with a lot of options. But with all of LASS's control features, the learning curve is more like a speed bump.
I'm not a gusher when it comes to sound libraries. There's typically a ratio of how good it sounds to how easy it is to use that determines my rating. But I have to gush about LASS. It sounds fantastic, it's easy to use and best of all, it inspires to me to compose.
If string writing is a major — or even a minor — part of your music production make‑up, and you can afford it, get LASS. You will not be disappointed. If you can't afford it.. figure something out and get LASS. You won't be disappointed.
Alternatives
LASS's biggest competition may come from East West/Quantum Leap Hollywood Strings, which wasn't available at the time of writing but may be by the time you read this. Hollywood Strings will be aiming to take over as the go‑to string library for film composers, but at the moment LASS is still king. However, EWQL Gold and Platinum, which are full orchestral packages, include extensive string-section capabilities.
True Divisi: A Holy Grail?
When I first heard about LASS and that its big claim was true divisi at last, I had to chuckle and roll my eyes a bit. Most of the composers I know don't care if the string sections are dividing accurately or not. Many of them load up a string patch and play chords. For them, bigger is better, so having more notes on a divisi is excellent. But then I thought about it for a minute. Yes, your divisis are bigger, but now your unisons are smaller in relation to them. That's not ideal.
Free pirate movies youtube. The other case for true divisi: film composers need to play accurate mock‑ups for directors before they record an orchestra, so that there are no surprises on the scoring stage. That's a fair point. However, the trend nowadays is to record orchestras in sections and, in many cases, overdub the strings once or twice or three times. So your true divisi is irrelevant, right? Not so fast. It all comes down to ratios and if the composer wants half the cellos playing Bb and a quarter of the cellos playing D and the last quarter playing G, then that's how the notes need to be distributed, no matter how many times the section is doubled.
But the great thing about true divisi is this: before LASS, if I wanted my violas, for instance, to all be playing an F, I would call up the viola section and play F. I might add some nuance with expression, and that would be it. Now, however, thanks to LASS, I load up the two three‑player sections and the six‑player section and do the same thing as before — only this time to each sub-section — and the part really comes alive. Add the first chair and you're all set.
Verdict: true divisi is not a trivial matter.
Pros
Audiobro La Scoring Strings
- Incredible-sounding string library.
- Easy to use.
- The Automatic Rhythm Tool could be a game changer.
Cons
- No hard copy of the manual or printable cheat sheet.
- It's quite pricey.
Summary
Whether you're attracted to the true legato, the real divisi, The Auto Rhythm Tool or the first-chair players feature, LA Scoring Strings is currently the king of the hill when it comes to string-section libraries.
information
Test Spec
- LA Scoring Strings v1.1.
- Apple Logic 8.02.
- Apple Mac with dual quad‑core Intel Xeon CPU (2 x 2.8 GHz), 6GB RAM, Mac OS 10.5.7.
- Samples streamed from internal serial‑ATA drive.